My review of Young Jean Lee‘s Untitled Feminist Show at the Baryshnikov Arts Center has just been posted on CultureVulture.net. Check it out here and let me know what you think.
Hilary Clark, Regina Rocke, and Katy Pyle (photo by Julieta Cervantes)
Archive for the 'theater reviews' Category
Theater review: UNTITLED FEMINIST SHOW
January 22, 2012Theater review: BURNING
December 2, 2011My review of Thomas Bradshaw’s mind-boggling new play Burning, directed by Scott Elliott at the New Group, has just been posted on CultureVulture.net. Check it out and let me know what you think.
The play is strong stuff but had a big impact on me. “The 30-year-old author of ten plays (including “Strom Thurmond Is Not a Racist”), Bradshaw does not, I think, set out primarily to shock, although shock he does…His remarkable accomplishment is to build a clear-eyed contemporary narrative that is as matter-of-fact about sex, drugs, and violence as it is about death, art, and politics. And he does so in a way that makes other playwrights look coy, cowardly, or faint-hearted.” You can read the full review online here.
Theater review: OTHER DESERT CITIES
November 27, 2011
My somewhat delayed review of the Broadway transfer of Jon Robin Baitz’s fine play Other Desert Cities was posted over the weekend on CultureVulture.net. I continue to admire the play very much, though I have some mixed feelings about the new cast (Judith Light and Rachel Griffiths, below). You can read my review in its entirety here.
Theater review: VENUS IN FUR
November 12, 2011
My review of David Ives’s play Venus in Fur, featuring Hugh Dancy and the newly minted Broadway star Nina Arianda, has just been posted on CultureVulture.net. Check it out and let me know what you think.
As I say in my review, “As a portrayal of sex, it’s extremely tame — there’s no nudity, and we never even see the whip that figures so heavily in [the main character’s] erotic fantasies. But there is one moment, as Dancy slowly, carefully zips Arianda into a pair of thigh-high black boots — when the play approaches that delicious moment in an erotic encounter when time appears to hold its breath.” You can read the review in its entirety here.
Theater review: CHINGLISH
November 7, 2011My review of David Henry Hwang’s new Broadway comedy Chinglish has just been posted online at CultureVulture.net. Check it out and let me know what you think.
The very good cast includes Gary Wilmes (above right), a downtown actor I’ve admired in productions by Richard Foreman and Richard Maxwell, and a bunch of terrific Chinese-American actors new to me, most notably Jennifer Lim (above left). As I say in the review, “Anyone who’s spent time clicking around the website Engrish.com will be well-prepared to enjoy David Henry Hwang’s new play…a culture-clash comedy about language, manners, business, politics, reputations, time, and romance. Some of it is predictable, but much of it is not. I left the theater entertained, thoughtful, and wondering ‘What kind of crazy play was that?’ which is a combo I like.”
You can read the whole review here.
another eye opens 